CBIOMES Director Mick Follows Wins 2023 A.G. Huntsman Award

The A.G. Huntsman Foundation has selected Mick Follows as the recipient of the 2023 A.G. Huntsman Award. Follows is a professor of oceanography at MIT and the director of the Simons Collaboration on Computational Biogeochemical Modeling of Marine Ecosystems (CBIOMES).

The honor is “in recognition of his contributions to understanding controls on the structure and function of phytoplankton communities, as well as their connection to ocean carbon and nutrient cycles,” according to the award announcement. “Through the development of novel tools and approaches, Dr. Follows has linked ecological theory, computer simulations and ocean observations.”

Established in 1980 by the Canadian marine science community and presented by the Royal Society of Canada, the prize recognizes excellence in research and outstanding contributions to marine sciences. The award is named in honor of Canadian oceanographer and fisheries biologist Archibald Gowanlock Huntsman.

Follows earned his Ph.D. from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. He later worked at the Max-Planck Institute in Mainz, Germany, before moving to MIT, where he rose from a postdoctoral researcher to a full professor.

On November 2, Follows will be honored during a ceremony at the Government House in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with a special A.G. Huntsman Distinguished Lecture the next day at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography.